New York on a budget

Best free attractions

Free New York is not a compromise, it is the version of the city most locals live in. The list below is 12 public parks and squares, from the two great designed landscapes of Manhattan and Brooklyn to a river islet you can only look at from a bridge, each one mapped and civic and open. Nine sit in Manhattan, one anchors Brooklyn, one holds most of Queens, and one is a slip of land in the East River that belongs to none of them. They are for the visitor with a MetroCard and an afternoon, and for the resident who wants an hour of grass or gravel or benches without buying anything. Bring water, wear the shoes you can walk in, and read each entry for what THIS address does that its category alone would not tell you.